Customer Feature: Untethered – Luxury Patient Gowns Designed With Dignity in Mind

What if a patient gown could provide the access medical professionals need without sacrificing the comfort, confidence and dignity of the person wearing it?

That question is at the heart of Untethered, a line of luxury patient gowns thoughtfully designed for women navigating everything from routine appointments to some of life’s most difficult diagnoses.

Created by pediatric nurse Lauren, the gowns bring together clinical functionality and intentional design, with soft fabrics, meaningful prints and a production process that considers every person involved.

The Inspiration: Dignity During the Hardest Days

As a third-generation nurse, Lauren had long been bothered by traditional hospital gowns. But the issue became deeply personal when her mother-in-law, Maryellen, was diagnosed with metastatic cancer.

“The heart behind it all is really as a nurse and as a loved one,” Lauren said. “I wanted to ensure that she could still have comfort and dignity.”

Lauren watched patients, including someone she loved, become exposed in oversized gowns that seemed to communicate their diagnosis above anything else about them.

“It made them look and feel more like a diagnosis rather than honor their humanity,” she said.

As Maryellen’s treatment progressed, Lauren searched for another option. She knew from her work as a nurse that patients are often allowed to bring their own gowns, something she says many people don’t realize.

She bought the alternatives she could find, but repeatedly came away disappointed. Some were pretty, but the materials were thin, scratchy or irritating.

“I just kept thinking to myself, I wouldn’t wear this on my very best day, when I’m feeling my absolute best self,” Lauren said. “Why in the world would we think this would be acceptable for someone on one of their hardest days?”

Lauren decided to create something better.

Designing Something Better

Lauren knew exactly what a patient gown needed from a clinical perspective. She sketched out her ideas, considering the access medical professionals require alongside the coverage, independence and comfort patients deserve.

There was just one problem: She didn’t know how to sew.

Maryellen wasn’t concerned.

“Lauren, honey, you’re a very smart girl,” Lauren remembers her saying. “You can find the people to help you bring this to life. You just need to tell them what the vision is, and you’ll find the people.”

Before Maryellen died, Lauren promised her she would.

Lauren eventually found one of those people in Margaret, a third-generation maker who grew up sewing alongside her mother and grandmother. After building a career in sustainable design in New York City, Margaret brought the design and construction expertise needed to turn Lauren’s clinical vision into a finished garment.

Finding the Right Fabric Partner

Creating the gown was only one part of Lauren’s vision. She was equally intentional about how and where it would be made.

“I wanted to do this in a way that aligned with my values,” she said.

That meant finding U.S. partners who shared her priorities, from quality and sustainability to the treatment of the artists and makers behind each product. For a new company starting with a small production run, finding those partners wasn’t always easy.

Then Lauren connected with Tara at Little Cocalico. “I was blown away by the quality of their fabrics, quality of printing and, most especially, the relationships that they have with the artists themselves,” Lauren said. “That is really unique.”

It was exactly the kind of partnership she had been looking for. “I was like, wow, these people are in alignment with my priorities too,” she said. “And that’s really hard to find.” For Untethered, fabric isn’t simply about how the finished gown looks.

When someone is undergoing cancer treatment or their body is fighting an illness, their skin can become particularly sensitive. After encountering thin, scratchy materials while shopping for Maryellen, Lauren knew softness and quality needed to be fundamental to the product.

“You get skin sensitive when you’re navigating and your body is fighting something, so we need to have something soft and not irritating,” she said.

Little Cocalico’s use of organic, water-based inks for digital printing aligned with that priority, allowing Untethered to pair colorful, detailed prints with a soft fabric appropriate for vulnerable skin.

Lauren kept a simple standard in mind throughout the process: The finished product needed to be something she would want to wear herself or would be proud to give to someone she loved.

“I wanted it to be a product that I would want to wear when and if I have to go into the hospital,” she said. “Or I’d be honored to have my mother or aunts wear.”

Choosing Prints With Meaning

Once the fabric partnership was established, Lauren faced a much more enjoyable problem: choosing from Little Cocalico’s artist-designed prints.

“The biggest issue is that there are so many incredible artists,” she said. “I had, like, 40 different prints picked out because I loved all of them and knew I had to start somewhere.”

Golden Wildflowers by Amanda Grace quickly became one of the most meaningful.

“When I looked at it, I thought of Maryellen, and I pictured her being free of pain and no longer constrained by all of the earthly pains she had to go through the last several years,” Lauren said. “She’s like a wildflower.”

That idea of being free from what had constrained Maryellen also helped inspire the name Untethered.

Lauren was similarly drawn to Amy McCready’s Justine print, which incorporates breast cancer awareness subtly into the design. McCready has since designed prints honoring ovarian cancer awareness as well.

The subtlety is important to Lauren.

“Oftentimes when we’re looking at different awareness designs, the symbols overwhel the design, as if the diagnosis takes over everything we see,” she said. “Yes, the diagnosis is part of the print, but it’s not all of it.”

The philosophy mirrors the purpose behind the gowns themselves. Illness may be part of someone’s life, but it doesn’t have to become the entirety of how she sees herself or how others see her.

From Print to Finished Gown

Untethered’s first production run was intentionally small.

Lauren wanted to move slowly and thoughtfully, working with partners who could help her maintain the values behind the brand from the printed yardage through the final snap.

After the fabric was printed at Little Cocalico, it traveled to New York, where the gowns were cut, sewn and snapped. Components were sourced in the U.S., keeping the production footprint minimal, all within the Northeast.

“When we talk about these smaller circles of the fashion industry and trying to make it more sustainable, it couldn’t have been done in a more thoughtful way,” Lauren said.

The approach also supports another part of Untethered’s mission: honoring not only the women wearing the gowns but the people whose work makes each one possible.

From the independent artists creating the patterns to the fabric printing and garment construction, Lauren wanted each part of the process to receive the same consideration as the final product.

“Without Little Cocalico, it wouldn’t have been possible,” she said.

What It Feels Like to Wear One

That attention to detail becomes most meaningful when a gown reaches the person it was created for.

After one woman received an Untethered gown as a gift, a family member wrote to Lauren to share how much joy the package had brought her. She loved the quality and softness of the fabric, the print and thoughtful details such as pockets and easy access.

But her description of how she could imagine wearing it spoke directly to Untethered’s original purpose.

“It looks like a normal dress which you could wear to a hospital appointment,” she said, adding that she could wear it with confidence without feeling the shame she associated with wearing a hospital gown.

“The material is so soft and the gown looks so stylish,” she added.

It was the experience Lauren had wanted for Maryellen, now being realized for another woman.

A Mission That Keeps Growing

Untethered isn’t intended only for extended hospital stays. The gowns can also be worn to outpatient procedures, medical appointments, lab work and other situations where patients need to provide medical access but don’t want to feel unnecessarily exposed.

And often, the person purchasing the gown isn’t the one who will wear it.

Lauren has found that many customers purchase Untethered gowns as gifts for someone navigating an illness or medical treatment. The company is now beginning to expand that experience with comfort and care packages featuring items such as tea, socks, greeting cards and gift cards.

Giving back is also part of the model. For every 10 gowns sold, Untethered gifts one to a woman with cancer. Lauren continues working full time as a pediatric nurse while building the company she promised Maryellen she would create.

She calls it a “labor of love.”

What began with one woman Lauren loved has grown into a product designed to remind many more women that even in moments when they feel most like a patient, they deserve to feel comfortable, confident and fully themselves.

Explore the entire Untethered collection at www.shopuntethered.com